


i’m your pillow when you’re sad, i’m your puppet when you’re mad

by FinishedKitten



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: M/M, SOFT GAYS, selina being stabby, sorta one sided
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-20 17:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17626301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinishedKitten/pseuds/FinishedKitten
Summary: bruce doesn’t know where to go after jeremiah dies in front of him. he wanders and finds a sanctuary in an unexpected place.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> title is from mime by issac dunbar which is also my new fav wayleska song! also i would love to thank thr lovely church of jeremiah for the idea and all the support. i love y’all!!

jeremiah was dead. bruce had to watch as selina stabbed him over and over (she really does have claws huh?) and could barely pull her off the clearly dead corpse. (hopefully he’s dead. you couldn’t handle any final words) jeremiah's final breaths and dying gurgles searing their way into bruce’s brain, another sound for the nightmares to claim along with pearls falling and gunshots. 

(you can’t stay. she’ll tear what’s left to shreds and you can't protect her anymore. she’ll tear you up too.) 

corralling selina out of the basement was about as easy as corralling a feral cat. she left more than a few scratches of varying depth up and down bruce’s arms until he let her go for a moment and she vanished into the night. (did you think she was going to stick around? even you, the eternal optimist, doesn’t even think she knows how.) 

going back to the green zone and facing jim with the knowledge that jeremiah was dead (isn’t that a good thing? everybody else will think so anyway) and he couldn’t stop selina when it really mattered made his heart sink a little lower. and the manor was out of the question as well, alfred meant well but bruce didn’t think he could handle talking to anybody at this point. so just wandering around the dark zone looking for a fight looked like all he was left with. (just go pick a fight. some good old fashioned violence will make you forget you couldn’t save your closest friend from his brother, selina, and himself.) 

thankfully the dark zone was where a lot of leftover goons who didn’t have a low level crime boss to follow anymore just hung out so finding a fight wasn’t really an issue. it was getting out of a fight bruce picked with somebody far too big for him without really thinking that became an issue. the big guy swung and managed to connect with bruce’s head so hard he felt his teeth sing and his palms scrape as he hit the pavement . (come on you can’t die all the way out here. they’ll never find you.) 

shots rang out over the square and the big guy fell like a tree in the forest. (he made lots of noise though no question there) bruce rolled over and tried to sit up only to be met with a face full of jeremiah's followers still absolutely filthy from the mines. (what could he be doing down there? digging a tunnel? for what? he trapped us in here. guess it doesn’t matter anymore) one of the followers offered a hand up with a smile that was just too big to be completely disarming. bruce took it slowly almost positive he was concussed and had almost no idea on how to get back to the green zone at this point. 

as soon as he stood up the followers(when did so many of them show up? you’re not in the top of your game kid) surrounded him. “follow us.” they said in unison. “there is something we must show you.” and maybe it was the concussion maybe it was the grief bruce wasn’t going to touch with a ten foot pole but he agreed carefullyand followed them back down into the basement with the oppressive grime and bloodstains. 

as soon as they got to a room at the back of the church basement, the door was unlocked quickly and bruce was pushed inside unceremoniously. the door shut and locked behind him as fast as it was opened. (great now you’re trapped in here! all that training to get locked in a cults basement. way to be a cliche) instead of listening to the rational thoughts rattling around his most definitely concussed head, bruce looked around the room and his eyes fixed on the massive bed that rested in the rooms center that was calling to him to rest his weary bones. 

maybe being locked inside a church that your former best friend built about himself after his twin brother sprayed him with a gas that made him insane isn’t the best time to be thinking about how exhausted you are. but it’s been a long few weeks? months? who even knows at this point. 

the room bruce is being kept in is warm and almost homey? if you ignore the frankly very welcoming bed with the “jeremiah our savior” bedspread print and and candles with his face on them. but it was warm and clean enough. after the bridges blew simple luxuries such as a warm room, a full meal, or even clean water become scarcities. what little there was of anything of value got snapped up as fast as possible and hoarded jealously. things equaled power and power was control. funny how everything goes back to caveman rules at the first sign of trouble. (that’s really not all the funny. you’re just tired)

sleep won out over common sense and rational thinking and bruce sank down into the bed with a wave of exhaustion washing over him. (aren’t you not supposed to sleep with a concussion? the followers could come back at any moment? you still need to track down selina? your arms are still scraped up! don’t go to sleep!) “shut up.” bruce mumbles tossing a slightly less injured arm over his head and drifting off. thinking and planning could wait until the morning, bruce hadn’t slept more than two hours here and there in what felt like years. a single thought of jeremiahs body falling to the ground ran through bruce’s mind as he drifted off to sleep. 

the door creaked open a few hours later and a figure stepped in as bruce slept soundly. jeremiah closed the door quietly before moving to the chair placed by the bed and sitting with a wince as the stitches groaned in protest at holding him back tighter. he wasn’t counting on the cat having such sharp claws but she wasn’t to focus now. the slumbering prince of gotham in his bed was. it seemed like no matter what he did bruce wasn’t seeing his side, wasn’t seeing how truly sane he was. it broke what was left of his heart but love that’s as true as his would wait. bruce would see the truth eventually and jeremiah would be there to hold his hand and lead him into the light. 

but for now he settled for laying a blanket on top of the sleeping boy, holding his hand while he slept, and taking in how peaceful he looked asleep. while he wasn’t trying to carry the burdens of so many. when he woke they would have to have to talk but until then jeremiah would let bruce rest. he got so precious little of it as it was, jeremiah would wait for him as long as it took for bruce to see that this all was for him. a few hours more wouldn’t kill him after everything they’ve been through together. 

“sleep darling. all will be better in the morning.” jeremiah says softly to the sleeping form and sits back to keep watch on his love, to protect him in the few hours he lets himself be vulnerable.


	2. turn the lights down low, if this is how i go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> everything jeremiah does is all for his love. he just had to wait for bruce to see that. (i suck at summaries)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title is from villains pt.1 by emma blackery also on my wayleska playlist!! as always thanks to the church of jeremiah discord! i love y’all! <3

(jeremiah pov) 

bruce slept soundly. soundly enough that jeremiah was able to bandage the claw marks devil cat left all over bruce’s arms. (should have just killed her instead) thankfully none of them were deep enough to need stitches and jeremiah could fix his darling as painlessly as possible. 

as soon as the bandages were in place and jeremiah was sure he’d done everything in the way of playing wasteland doctor (really should have just killed the little bitch for even looking at bruce) he resumed his previous position, perched in the chair next to the bed, leaning half over the bed and the boy contained within, and ran his hand through bruce’s hair while holding his hand. the sounds of the tunnel (he’ll love it he has to) (what if he doesn’t??!!) (he will don’t worry!) are muffled enough that jeremiah doesn’t want to storm out there and stop construction so his prince isn’t disturbed from his fairytale slumber. (that makes you the knight in shining armor) 

bruce turns in his sleep towards the soft touch, something so rare in gotham now and jeremiah feels his heart twist with something almost too sweet to name. (brilliant boy this is all for you can’t you see?) jeremiah all but coos over bruce and continues his ministrations. (i would dig a thousand tunnels by hand for a moment like this again darling) thoughts of dread devotion and worship flit across jeremiahs mind almost too fast to follow but they all come back to the simple fact he would burn the world down if it made bruce smile. (it wouldn’t he’s noble like that. maybe a park with his name would make him happy) (after the tunnel the tunnel will be perfect) a troubled look runs over bruce’s face as if a dark cloud crept over his mind while he slept. “ sleep darling you are safe here with me i swear.” jeremiah soothes quietly. 

a few moments later bruce very slowly opens his eyes and wakes up to the very much alive jeremiah valeska holding his hand and perched half over him, half off the bed cooing sweet nothings trying to soothe the now awake boy. “you aren’t real are you? you have to be dream.” bruce says softly, his voice still thick with sleep. (focus now he needs reassurance not the time for dreaming about waking up next to him) “darling i’m as real as you are.” jeremiah replied warmly as his free hand went through bruce’s hair again. “mmm but you died i saw selina, she killed you. i wasn’t fast enough.” came the guilty response and bruce’s eyes started to shine with unshed tears. (oh no that won’t do at all.) 

“oh darling nothing that happened tonight was your fault. believe me when i say that. i will be here for as long as you will have me brucie.” jeremiah reassured while wiping away a tear from bruce’s (beautiful, angelic, gorgeous) (stop focus!) face. “you’ll just be gone when i wake up.” bruce says resigning himself to waking alone and having to find a way back to the green zone alone, and telling jim what happened, and finding selina, and helping haven as much as he can, and it’s all too much. it all feels like a weight on his chest and he can’t breathe it’s too much. (you need to calm him down having a bed full of bruce losing his mind is not part of the plan) 

“stop thinking for one moment darling. i can see the wheels turning from here. take a deep breath, you’re scaring yourself.” jeremiah says in what he tries to make a soothing tone but it’s just a little too off. “sit up darling and take a deep breath.” he helps bruce up and takes deep breaths with him until color returns to his loves face. “that’s better darling. just lay back down and go to sleep. everything will seem better in the morning i promise. “ jeremiah reassures while running his thumb along the back of bruce’s hand in a calming gesture. 

he moves to get up from the bed to give bruce more room(he’s getting tall mmmm) before a hand reaches out to grasp his wrist. “don’t-don’t leave please. i don’t want to lose you in the morning.” bruce says almost shyly, not meeting his eyes. “of course darling whatever you want.” jeremiah soothes while laying down next to him. bruce rolls over to face him and touches his face tenderly. “i’m sorry this is all my fault everything.” he says sadly, still not meeting jeremiahs eyes. (that won’t do that wasn’t him at all!) 

“darling look at me please.” jeremiah says softly looking dead at bruce until their eyes meet. “none of this was your fault my darling boy. now sleep please, you’re too tired to be having any serious talks.” jeremiah soothes and takes bruce’s hand. (note for the future he gets more guilty the less sleep he gets. he must get that from gordon) “i’ll be here in the morning, brucie just rest.” bruce nods slowly as another wave of exhaustion rolls over him and he fades off with the image of his friend, dead now alive with the lights from the candles framing him like the stained glass windows his face adorns outside in the church. 

(he does care and he will love the tunnel. he waited for you just as you waited for him. that buzzing feeling is love, true love. and in time he will feel it as true and deep as you do. all you have to do is wait a little longer) 

jeremiah watched his prince fall asleep in his bed again and some caged part of him mourned the nights the spent working together in the bunker and some reborn part of him rejoices at the sight of his beloved resting in his arms, feeling safe with him. love waits and so would him. bruce would open his eyes and be welcomed with open arms and an open heart. jeremiah knew all about waiting.

“sleep darling i’ll be here when you wake. i’ll be here for as long as it takes for you to understand this is all for you.” jeremiah whispers and something like a smile graces the face of the sleeping billionaire vigilante.


End file.
